<p>The City of Cape Town notes with concern the comments attributed to the South African Football Association (SAFA) Cape Town about the cancellation of the Bayhill Premier Cup. This is the latest in a series of misleading comments by SAFA CT about the upcoming soccer season and contingency plans that have been in effect during the prevailing drought crisis. </p><p>For the record, the City has not cancelled the Bayhill tournament as we are not the event organisers. In fact, there have been multiple positive engagements with the organisers aimed at finding a way to allow this tournament to continue, and to prepare the fields required for this purpose, within the limitations set by Level 6B water restrictions.</p><p>The City recognises the importance of the tournament in the development of young soccer players. Last year the City did everything within its power to ensure that this tournament went ahead, including the trucking in of non-potable water to irrigate fields ahead of the tournament. Similar efforts were in place in preparation for the 2018 instalment of the tournament.</p><p>During a meeting this morning, the organisers indicated that they had decided to cancel the tournament for a number of reasons which they will elaborate on in due course. It is indeed a pity that the tournament has had to be cancelled, but we thank the organisers for their mature view of the drought crisis and the impact it is having on life as we know it.</p><p>In terms of the comments attributed to SAFA Cape Town in recent days and the allegation that the City ‘does not have a plan’ to deal with the impact of the drought on local football, allow me to state the following:</p><ul><li>On 29 January 2018 the City requested that SAFA (and other sports federations) submit a list of their most important fixtures so that we could prioritise the fields required for irrigation with treated effluent or borehole water</li><li>This was reiterated at a mass communication session held with all sporting federations on 10 February 2018 </li><li>Numerous federations (cricket, rugby, softball and baseball) have already made significant changes to their fixtures and schedules. The City has yet to receive this list from SAFA</li><li>Furthermore, it was decided that the City’s 29 artificial turfs will be used to accommodate as many of the major soccer fixtures as possible and that their use would be determined by SAFA</li><li>The City has suggested a number of contingency plans to ensure that sport can continue as far as possible, such as the use of community halls for junior games where a soccer ball is replaced with a softer, indoor ball</li><li>SAFA has not provided any proposals around how it would like the remaining playable fields to be booked in order to ensure that the most effective and equitable approach is taken</li><li>SAFA has yet to present any proposals around how it intends to adapt its season during this water crisis. Indeed, the communication we have seen issued from SAFA has focused on:<br>o (a) the intention to continue with business as usual despite the continued destruction of the grass playing fields, an approach that will render many of them unplayable for years to come as the City will not have the money to reinstate these fields when all the grass has been stripped <br>o (b) blaming the City for not accommodating their usual fixtures and play hours despite numerous and lengthy engagements around the impact of the water crisis on the maintenance of grass fields</li></ul><p>We do not know how else we can get the message across to SAFA that, as part of the ‘new normal’ we all find ourselves in, the City’s ability to irrigate its grass playing fields is severely compromised. Continued play on these fields will mean that they will be stripped of all grass. It takes in excess of R400 000 and 3 million litres of water to reinstate a field once it has reached this state. This means that it will likely be many years before the City will be able to get these fields back to a reasonable state for play. </p><p>If the soccer fraternity recognizes this fact and reduces play on these fields until the rains come, there is a chance that soccer leagues can be accommodated on fields later in the year. We recognise that the current water crisis is negatively impacting on the functioning of the various sports codes and we are committed to working with all concerned to ensure that the impact is minimised, whilst still taking the necessary steps to preserve the city’s remaining water resources. The Social Services Directorate is also reprioritizing budget in the financial year starting in July 2018 to improve sporting facilities by building additional artificial pitches, sinking new boreholes and expanding the treated effluent reticulation network to allow for better irrigation of playing fields which we are not allowed to irrigate with potable water.</p><p><strong>End</strong><br></p>

Day Zero, the day we may have to start queueing for water, has now moved to 9 July 2018.

<p>Day Zero, the day we may have to start queueing for water, has now moved to 9 July due to a weekly drop in dam levels of only 0.5% (as compared to a 1.9% drop in 2014). This week’s lower rate of consumption can be attributed to the Groenland water reaching Steenbras Upper Dam last week and slightly increasing the dam level, as well as to a further reduction in Cape Town’s weekly average demand to 523 megalitres per day (MLD) compared to 1 130 MLD in 2014. </p><p>The Groenland water transfer and the reduction in our weekly average demand has had a dramatic impact on the Day Zero date, which is determined by assuming that the fortnightly trend of weekly dam storage change will continue unchanged. This precautionary outlook assumes no further rainfall and that water demand may not reduce over the next few months. It has been adopted to allow sufficient lead time for implementation of temporary water collection points in the event that these may be required.</p><p>We anticipate that Day Zero could move back into June again once the Groenland transfer has been completed, unless we are able to meet the 450 MLD collective water usage target. Therefore it is imperative that we reach this target to make it through to the winter rains.</p><p>Today I urge the residents of Cape Town not to ease up on their water-saving efforts. We cannot afford to slow down when the estimated Day Zero date moves out, simply because we cannot accurately predict the volume of rainfall still to come or when it will come. Last year we had abnormally low winter rainfall, and we cannot assume that this year will be any different.</p><p>The only way we can stretch our water supplies is to adhere to the 50 litres per person per day water allocation. Our water saving efforts across the metro have thus far been our greatest defence against Day Zero. Now is definitely not the time to ease up.</p><p>We once again want to thank the Groenland Water Users Farming Association for the water transfer, which made a considerable difference when we needed it most.</p><p>Our preparations for Day Zero continue as planned, along with the City’s aggressive roll-out of pressure management initiatives and the installation of water management devices at the properties of high users across the metro. Enforcement blitzes will also continue to ensure that all water users adhere to the water restrictions. </p><p>Latest water dashboard (<a href="http://coct.co/water-dashboard/" target="_blank">http://coct.co/water-dashboard/</a>)</p><ul><li>
Day Zero: 9 July 2018 (was 4 June 2018)
</li><li>Dam Levels: 24,4% (decline of 0,5%)
</li><li>
Total consumption: 523 million litres per day (73 million litres above the target of 450 million litres per day)
</li><li>
Percentage of Capetonians saving: *note, due to the implementation of 50 litre targets, this calculation is under review
</li></ul><p>Level 6B restrictions make it compulsory for residents to use no more than 50 litres per person per day.</p><p>See the following link for the new tariff details:
<a href="http://bit.ly/WaterTariff" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/WaterTariff</a></p><p>Please visit
<a href="http://www.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater" target="_blank">www.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater</a> to see what a community water plan could look like community_water_plan for all water-related information, including Level 6B restrictions and regularly updated FAQs about Day Zero as well as tips to lower usage even further. </p><p>Also visit
<a href="http://www.capetown.gov.za/watermap" target="_blank">www.capetown.gov.za/watermap</a> to see if your household is painting the city green to avoid Day Zero. </p><p>
<strong>End</strong></p>

Cape Town has the lowest official unemployment rate, at 21,7%, of all the metros in South Africa.

<p>​</p><p>Today, I am pleased to reflect on the city’s encouraging economic results where 89 000 more Cape Town residents were employed in the fourth quarter of 2017 than during the same period in 2016. In addition, Cape Town has the lowest official unemployment rate, at 21,7%, of all the metros in South Africa.</p><p>Cape Town’s growing employment is a testament to the City’s efforts to create an enabling environment for businesses to invest and to create new jobs.</p><p>The recent Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2017 for the fourth quarter, from 1 October to 31 December 2017, shows that Cape Town’s strict unemployment rate is far below the national strict unemployment rate of 26.7%.</p><p>Cape Town’s job creation efforts continue to yield positive results as our unemployment rate is lower than all the other major cities including: eThekwini (21,9%), Tshwane (26.9%), Johannesburg (28.2%), Ekurhuleni (33.6%) and Nelson Mandela Bay (36.9%).</p><p>Cape Town’s strict unemployment rate decreased by 1.5 percentage points from the previous quarter and decreased by 2.2 percentage points on a year-on-year basis. </p><p>The city has the lowest expanded rate of all major cities. Cape Town’s expanded rate of unemployment (23,5%) is far below the national expanded rate (36,3%).</p><p>Statistics South Africa’s figures show that the number of unemployed people in Cape Town has decreased on a quarter-on-quarter basis by 30 235. </p><p>At present, 1 285 791 Capetonians are employed in the formal sector while 170 089 are employed in the informal sector. Encouragingly, this is the sixth consecutive quarter that the employment level in the city has increased.</p><p>We will continue working hard on our efforts to bring more investment and create more jobs in Cape Town so that we can address poverty and unemployment and put a greater dent into the number of people who are still without work.</p><p>I am also pleased to report on our City’s economic development efforts which have achieved a number of important milestones. During the last three months of 2017, the City’s funding to Wesgro and industry bodies such as the Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPeSA) and GreenCape facilitated R1,3 billion in investments. These investments created 1 370 jobs in the business process out-sourcing, ICT, manufacturing and renewable energy sectors.</p><p>The City’s Enterprise and Investment Department works closely with Wesgro, BPeSA Western Cape and Green Cape to promote trade and grow a more inclusive economy. </p><p>It is important to note that the City of Cape Town works with the private sector and investors to grow our economy. It is not only government’s role to create jobs but we have a keen understanding that we must create the conditions conducive to economic growth and support those sectors which are showing the most growth. We must ensure that all of our residents have equal access to opportunities. By working together, we can redress the imbalances of our past.</p><p>Finally, in more good news, Moody’s kept the City of Cape Town’s good global and national scale credit ratings at Baa3/Prime-3 and Aaa.za/Prime-1.za, respectively. The credit rating agency commended the City’s ‘stable financial performance,’ which is supported by a large diversified economic base.</p><p>The agency did note that the City’s global scale rating is currently on review for a possible downgrade due to the national sovereign rating also being on review. </p><p>Despite challenges, with these results Cape Town has shown that we are a resilient city, and that we are committed to good governance and creating opportunities for all.</p><p><br><strong>End </strong><br></p>

2018-02-19T22:00:00Z

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